you showed me yours, i'll show you mine.... part deux

since David shared some of his musical interests in his blog, I thought I might share a couple of mine.
The first one is two ton boa, who we saw opening for the Dresden dolls on jan 8th this year. Honestly, I never take much stock in an opening band, but thought maybe I'd give them at least half a listen when Amanda Palmer from the dolls felt the need to take time out of getting ready for the show and introduce them personally in her bathrobe. The band walked out on stage and this tiny 5'4" in heels girl walks out and grabs a bass and a mic. Whitey and I both think "how cute, a girl in a rock band." The tiny, cute girl proceeds to unleash a voice on us the likes of which I have never heard before. Combine the insane voice with a funky experimental rock sound, and you get the uhh... unique (for lack of a more descriptive word) sound that is two ton boa. Oh yeah, they use two bases a keyboard and drums... no guitar.


So next is The Dresden Dolls, who I've been in love with for like 4 years now. Honestly, it took a while at first for me to get into them because their music is very intense and odd. It's absolutely beautiful, but it's a very dark and complicated beauty. So, anyways, lest I ramble on and bore you with a thousand stories about how much I want to fuck the lead singer, lemme just embed the damn video.


Next is a group the SA goons turned us onto called Tilly and the Wall. It's offbeat mostly folk sounding music with some rock and ethnic influences... and oh yeah, the majority of the percussion is done by a tap dancer. I don't just like this one because I happen to be a tap dancer. I think their sound is amazing... the fact that it's done by a tap dancer makes it that much more amazing for me.


Next is Imogen Heap, who it's quite possible you've heard of, but she's still off a few people's radars, so I thought I give her some props here. Anyone who knows my musical taste will find it obvious why I like her (piano, a little electronic sound, and an unusual but gorgeous voice for those of you who don't know). I'm giving her a commercial vid because this is what i think of as her true sound. The live stuff you can find on you tube is great, too though, just a different sound.


Last but not least (at least until I decide I've forgotten someone else extraordinary) is the lovely miss Vienna Teng, who had a well paying job as a software engineer for sisco systems and then quit after 2 years to have a music career. If you go here, there's an archive of numerous live performances. It is actually listening here that I fell in love with Vienna's music. Those who know my musical tastes will again know exactly why I like her about 10 seconds into the video (good piano player, good voice, not completely traditional).

blah

I am sick. I do not like this being sick.
I especially do not like this being sick and not getting better. I really especially do not like this being sick and not getting better when it involves waking up at 3 in the morning and not being able to get back to sleep. I really especially do not like this being sick and not getting better when it involves waking up at 3 in the morning and not being able to get back to sleep when I have no tell-tale signs that the doctor can latch onto such as a fever.
I do not like this being sick.

Revelations while watching a DVD

So we were watching a Dresden Dolls DVD, and, per usual, Amanda was making all kinds of complicated grimaces while singing and playing on the piano. I saw her face, and said "I want to live there". However, I didn't mean it in the usual sense. She lives in a world of complicated, dark beauty where artistry reigns unchallenged and crazy is the law of the land. I want to just let my creativity and chaos run and see what happens. I want to live in a "world" where I can be me: dark, cynical, complicated and sparkly almost all the time. I want to know what I can do when I use everything I have and everything I am and don't accept anything less than 150%.
The real world has no time for 150% and doesn't understand people who strive for it above all things. It wants someone who can produce reasonable quality results as quickly as possible. It wants someone who will fill a mold.
I'm not that person, and, some days, I get tired of trying to be that person. I want to be me. I know most people just suck it up and live in the real world day to day and live in crazy-land as a hobby. I just want to know why I should strain and strive to be mediocre in a normal job and a normal life, when I could be amazing if I lived in a cave and worked on whatever idea came into my head--be it a dance, a song, a music video, a teaching curriculum, a form for an office, etc.
Yes, I sound like a whiny emo goth fag, and I won't deny it. I may sound like I want to be lazy and use being a whiny emo goth fag as an excuse to get out of doing any real work. This isn't true. I work really damn hard at everything I do. I want to be excellent at everything I do. However, this rarely works out because the task and I just don't fit. I would love to be able to say "Here I am and this is what I have, and if you don't like it, I don't care; I'm going back to my cave to make something else amazing." I just want to be able to say "here I am, and here's what I can do, and here's how I like to do it", and have someone say "wonderful!" instead of "okay, well that's not fast enough and we really don't like to do things that way and, by the way, do you have experience herding goats through the himalayas because we have to do that quite often here even though we're not goat herders and we live in the middle of Alabama."
I know that I can improve my skills and learn how to herd goats and stop being a perfectionist and stop being a whiny cunt when a co-worker points out a problem, but, all that aside, most days I would rather be a brilliant crazy person than a passable social worker who can herd goats.

Yeah, I definitely want to live there.

i am so awesome i should have a "best of"

or rather, i realized i don't update often enough so I figured I'd update some of the newer viewers of the blog and remind you old faithful ones of some of my more brilliant literary works.
"random rant" from June 2005
"why i gave my ass to science from July 2005
my "guide to people who watch porn but are still virgins" from July 2005
my "guide for girls who read romance novels but are still virgins" from July 2005
"On Euphemisms" from july 2005
"jenga" from January 2006
"Everything I need to know I learned from my dog" from may 2006
"it's been 8 long years" from June 2006
"he knows if you've been bad or good", My 2006 Christmas letter to santa and his reply

I am no longer an atheist

We just went to the Dresden dolls concert at Workplay. I think my only memory for the rest of my life will be of Amanda Palmer in thigh high bitch boots, a long pinstriped skirt, and a black lacy bra. Yep. she stripped off her shirt to do the encore songs. There is definitely a God.